Get the camera lens parallel to the pencil, an angle that makes it easier to see the length changing.

Convey to the student visually what John wrote in his tweet: that this pencil is about to get ground down to nothing.

Postpone the pencil measurements until the second act. The moment where John measures the pencil is useful and necessary but the first act (the #anyqs) should focus exclusively on curiosity and context. The math introduces itself later in act two to help resolve that curiosity.

Nice. I actually would postpone the timer until Act Two as well. Like the pencil measurement, it takes away from the curiosity and context, and actively pushes kids toward a specific question.

It reminds me of the tank-filling video; my ideal Act One would be you grinding down an entire pencil, and the teacher pausing the video whenever a kid complains about how long it’s going to take. I am pretty sure this is you goal question ;)

@Bowen, there probably isn’t a design decision I’ve wobbled back and forth on more than including a timer in act one. I’m fairly certain students would want to know how long? without the timer. It isn’t about that. It’s that I’ve always sensed a whole lot of thumb-twiddling from the students when I replay the entire video just to get an accurate count on time.

How about a second version of the Act One video? The first video you play is without the timer. Then when kids ask about time and get interested, you play a second version with a timer (perhaps skipping parts of the first video that aren’t as relevant anymore)? Or is that what you meant by the thumb-twiddling…

Part of me also thinks that if your video included the full pencil-killing in real time, kids will just want to cheat and see how long the video lasts by fast-forwarding.

It’s a tough call, you know enough about it to have probably made the right one!!

Actually, as the person who has 4 times had to disassemble the library pencil sharpener from my wife’s school, because the bad design causes the sharpener to jam if the hopper overflows, I also care how long it takes the hopper to fill.

I also wonder about the designers or engineers who design these objects, and why they make such bone-headed design decisions.

Actually, after seeing what qualifies for barely passing work at an engineering school, maybe I don’t wonder so much.